1910] Wheeler — Artificial Ant-Nests 73 
SMALL ARTIFICIAL ANT-NESTS OF NOVEL PATTERNS. 
By WittraM Morton WHEELER, 
Harvard University. 
The study of the behavior of ants, which is attracting an ever in- 
creasing number of investigators, has led to the invention of several 
different patterns of artificial nests. ‘Those used by the older writers, 
such as Swammerdam ', Pierre Huber? and Lubbock? contained earth, 
and some of the more modern nests recommended by Wasmann?# and 
others also contain this substance. A new departure was initiated by 
Janet® in his plaster of Paris nests and by Miss Adele M. Fielde in 
the glass nests which she has devised®, since both of these investiga- 
tors dispense with earth as an untidy, and superfluous accessory. 
Veihmeyer’ has suggested some improvements in the construction of 
the Janet nest, and Miss Buckingham ® and I*® have endeavored to 
introduce certain modifications in the structure of the Fielde nest; Miss 
Buckingham substituting aluminum for the glass base, thus greatly 
diminishing its weight, while I have substituted plaster of Paris, thus 
combining the principles of the Janet and Fielde nests and facilitating 
construction. Emery” has very recently published an account of a mod- 
ification of the Janet nest, which, owing to its cheapness and durability, 
and the ease of its construction, merits the attention of all those who 
are studying living ants in the laboratory. I subjoin a translation of 
his directions for making this piece of apparatus. 

1 Biblia Nature, Leyden 1737. 
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Rev. Ed. 1909, 188 pp. 5 pls. 
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XVIII, 1893, pp. 168-171; Appareils pour l’Observation des Fourmis et des Animaux 
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ibid., VII, 1904, pp. 215-220, 1 pl. 2 figs. 
7 Beobachtungsnester fiir Ameisen, ‘‘ Aus der Heimat,’’ 1905, Heft 1, 11 pp., 6 figs. 
8 A Light-weight, Portable Outfit for the Study and Transportation of Ants. Amer. 
Natur., Oct. 1909, pp. 611-614. 
9 On the Founding of Colonies by Queen Ants, with Special Reference to the Parasitic 
and Slave-making Species. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXII, 1906, pp. 33-105, 7 pls., 
1 fig. 
10 Kleine Kiinstliche Ameisennester, Zeitschr. f. wiss. Insektenbiol. V, 1909, p. 403. 
